Lin was seen three hours prior to today's Game 1 at American Airlines Arena playing one-on-one against Knicks assistant coach Kenny Atkinson. Beck reports that the 23-year-old point guard was "running, cutting and moving laterally," all good signs that he's ahead of schedule in his recovery from April 2 knee surgery.

Lin hasn’t played since March 24; the team discovered shortly thereafter that he had a partially torn meniscus in his left knee. It was originally projected that Lin couldn't return until mid-May; he's now threatening to come back sooner.

Lin played 35 games for the Knicks this season, posting per-game averages of 14.6 points, 6.1 assists and 3.1 rebounds.